


Sugary Spirits

by sheriffandsteel



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Halloween, Haunted House, Modern Westeros, Past Relationship(s), angstyish to start but with a happy ending, snowygritte
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-11
Updated: 2019-10-11
Packaged: 2020-12-07 22:22:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20983352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sheriffandsteel/pseuds/sheriffandsteel
Summary: After working in the same haunted house for three years Jon didn't think there was a single thing in there that could scare him but that was before Ygritte walked in.





	Sugary Spirits

He wasn’t entirely sure how he had let his siblings talk him into this for three years running but Jon made a silent promise to himself that they were not going to do it again next year. Three Octobers of fake blood and high caliber shrieking was more than enough for him. Three Octobers spent working every night in a haunted house was three too many as far as he was concerned. He didn’t care if Arya bribed him or Robb begged he was going to put his foot down next year; he had simply had enough. 

Jon had thought that nothing would be worse than last year when he got kicked in the balls by a man twice his size (it’s a haunted house, did this guy seriously not expect people to jump out at him?) but that was before he learned who he would be sharing his station with this year. 

Of all the stations in the house the least coveted one was the front hallway. It was painted dark black and the only light leading your way was the sickly green arrow painted at the end of the hall pointing the brave of heart to the next stage on their journey. Some people got halfway down the hallway and got too spooked by their own imagination of what was coming next and would turn around and flee. It was why Davos insisted that there be a two minute gap between each group entering the house, he wanted to avoid a buildup of confusion at the door. 

It was also why they had a strict no refund policy. 

At first glance the only scary thing in the hallway was the darkness and your own fear, it was by all accounts totally empty and harmless. Well, except for the two sections of hallway that had been cut out and recovered with thick pieces of black fabric. Even if you knew what you were looking for it was hard to notice it in the light and completely impossible in the darkness of the hallway. Besides, most of the guests that entered the house were too busy trying not to trip on their own two feet to worry about the walls of an empty hall. Until of course they walked into range and the people behind the walls reached forward, pressing their hands out into the thick fabric and brushing people’s arms or hair. The loud screams people admitted signaled to everyone else in the house what kind of people were coming towards them; the kind that would scream, the kind that would cry, and worst of all the kind that would hit. 

Out of all the sections in the house you could be assigned too, no one really wanted the hallway. By the standards of the rest of the place it was downright boring. But after the events of last year Jon was more than ready for a little bit of boring. He made sure to request a spot in the hallway with Davos the moment he realized Arya was trying to rope him into another year of what she called ‘the best job ever’ with a serious face. Davos came through on his request and Jon showed up to the orientation and walk through dressed in all black (as was required of him for his ‘costume’ but also his normal) and with a package of earplugs in his pocket. Jon was ready for this to be the easiest October of his life, he was ready to be able to finally see what Arya saw in this job. To finally understand why his siblings were all so obsessed with working in a haunted house. To his surprise he was actually a little bit excited for this season to begin. 

Of course, this was all before he learned who his section partner was and Jon realized this was going to be even worse than last year. Hell, this was going to be worse than the time Theon told him all the players on the hockey team were going to shave their heads in solidarity of Robb’s bad haircut and Jon was the only one who ended up doing it. 

Jon was tempted to quit right then and there but he didn’t want to have to answer his siblings’ incessant questions nor did he want to give her the satisfaction of seeing him run away. Again. Jon brooded through the whole tour of the house, barely even noticing the adjustments Davos had made over the year. As far as he was concerned Ygritte Wilde was the scariest thing in the whole building and he was staring down the barrel of thirty-one nights standing across from her in the dark and ignoring her harsh accent and even harsher words. 

Jon just hoped she would be able to keep her mouth shut, so far no word of their brief triste had gotten to Theon and Robb but Jon new once it did it was all over for him. He could still hear Ygritte’s laugh and her asking if he knew where to put it, he didn’t need to hear Greyjoy saying the same shit to him. 

For the record, Jon _did_ know where to put it. He was no snowy maiden like Ygritte thought he was, he had just been trying to be respectful. For all the talk Ned had given him about being honorable when it came down to it, honor had just bitten him in the ass. 

Not that Jon was bitter or anything like that. It's not like the first girl he had liked in ages thought he was a complete buffoon or anything. It’s not like the other thing she had said to him ran on repeat in his brain _You know nothing Jon Snow_. 

When it came to girls that was very true. 

Ygritte didn’t say anything to him at orientation and Jon didn’t see her so much as look at Theon so he couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief as he headed to his car alone. Everyone else had plans to go too so Jon was the only one headed home, alone like the loser he had always known he was. His relief proved to be short lived and he hesitated as he approached his car and saw her leaning against it casually like it was the most normal thing in the world. Her fiery red hair was down and longer than it had been last semester when he had still been allowed to tangle his fingers in her tresses. 

Jon swallowed hard and shook the thoughts from his mind forcefully as he approached her, trying to focus on this moment and not the past. 

“Jon Snow.” she said with a smile breaking across her face like the sun raising. It was so bright that Jon had to force himself to look away before the sight of it burned him. 

“Ygritte.” he said hating the way his caution bled into his tone. 

If Ygritte heard it, she didn’t comment on it but Jon noticed her smile got a little smugger from the corner of his eye. They both pretended not to notice that. For all the things that had happened between them they were very good at mutual ignorance. 

“My car is in the shop.” Ygritte said as she shoved her hands deeper into the pockets of her thin coat. Winter always came early in the North but Ygritte had transferred to the University of Winterfell from even more north than here so she was used to colder temperatures than Jon could wrap his head around. She’d told him once as they curled around each other on her couch that he didn’t know what real cold truly felt like. Judging by the way she wore much lighter layers than the rest of them Jon was willing to wager that she was right. 

Jon curled his fingers tighter around his keys. If he was remembering right her car had been in the shop for nearly seven months now. Jon was beginning to think she either needed to get a new one or it didn’t exist at all. With Ygritte one never really knew. 

He knew what she was asking without asking, he didn’t spend weeks hearing that same statement not question to not know what it meant. It didn’t mean he wanted to do it though. He was already going to have to spend weeks with her in the hallway from hell, he didn’t want to be trapped in a closed in space with her too, especially one as small as the interior of his Honda Civic. 

But it was cold out and he had been raised to be a gentleman and polite. It wasn’t like Ygritte and him had parted on that bad of terms all things considered. He had heard enough stories of Robb and Theon’s breakups, hell Sansa’s too, to know how much worse it could have gone. Ygritte and him didn’t blow up, or even fizzle out like Sansa liked to say. Their initial spark had burned bright and blazing hot and then suddenly it was like someone dumped a bucket of ice water over it. It was there one second and extinguished the next and to this day Jon still wasn’t sure which one of them had been carrying the bucket. 

“I can give you a ride home.” Jon didn’t bother to hide his sigh; she would have heard it anyway. Considering how much she used to call him a brooder it probably would have been weirder if he hadn’t sighed. 

His car refused to move in the cold unless he let it run for a minimum of five minutes. Sometimes it took longer to warm up his car than it did to drive to campus. It was why he bummed so many rides with Robb but their class schedule didn’t always line up and Jon refused to accept the offer of a new car Ned and Catelyn had been dangling over him for years. He might be blood to Ned and he might call their children his siblings because in his heart they were so much more than cousins, but that didn’t mean he had to keep taking things from them. He felt bad enough he still lived in their house but when Ned caught him packing on his eighteenth birthday and told him he didn’t have to worry about moving out until well after he graduated college, he had meant it. Sometimes it was still strange for Jon to realize that as much as he thought of them as his family, they felt about him the same way. 

Regardless, he had bought his crappy car with his own money of slinging hot chocolate at the ice rink for three years and it might be a piece of shit but it was still his. Nobody could claim he got it as a handout for being Ned Stark’s nephew. 

“Your car still sucks I see.” Ygritte grinned as she shifted in the seat and reached over to adjust the radio as it picked up the bluetooth on his phone and started playing the podcast he’d been listening to earlier. At least this one was on the legend of dragon riders and not the self-help one he was listening to yesterday. 

“Still better than your car.” Jon retorted as he pulled out of the empty parking lot. He saw Ygritte smile from the corner of his eye and he quickly focused on the road. He did not need to be noticing her smile. They'd had their shot and he’d blown it, or she’d blown it, somebody messed up somewhere and that was all that mattered. No point trying to start something they both knew wouldn’t take. 

“Fair point.” Ygritte finally stopped fiddling with the volume button and tucked her hands into her sleeves. For as much as she liked to talk about how much colder it was where she was from her hands were always freezing and Jon knew she was resisting the urge to put her hands over the heating vents. For all the faults of his old car the heater worked great and Jon reached over to turn it up higher clearing his throat when he felt Ygritte’s eyes on him. 

“You still live in the same building?” he asked, hoping she wouldn’t think it creepy that he still knew how to get to her place. It wasn’t because she lived there, it was because Winterfell wasn’t that big of a town when you had lived there your whole life. 

“Yeah, but I have a new roommate now.” Ygritte said casually and Jon was a little surprised that they were actually having a normal conversation. This was the first time they had spoken since the last disastrous time he had been to her apartment and he wondered if that was on her mind as much as it was on his. 

“What happened to Val?” he asked semi-curiously. Ygritte’s old roommate had been nice and she had a way of looking at Jon like she could see right through him but he honestly wasn’t all that interested in why she had moved out. Now that they were talking again, he wanted nothing more than to keep the conversation going about anything. 

“She moved back North.” Ygritte said with a shrug as Jon took the turn onto her street feeling a surprising pang of sadness that they were there already. It was always strange to hear Ygritte call something that wasn't Winterfell ‘the North’. “My new roomie’s from back home too. My cousin’s friend. Tormund.” 

“Do you like living with him?” Jon asked as he pulled up next to the curb in front of her building. He was trying, and failing, to not remember the last time he came through those doors, shirtless and barreling out of them so fast that he nearly dropped the shoes and coat he’d been in too much of a hurry to put on before he tore off into the cold. 

“He’s messy.” Ygritte said with a huff, placing her hand on the doorknob and giving Jon another of those heart stopping smiles. “Thanks for the ride Jon Snow.” 

XxX 

“You’ve had a change of heart.” Sansa remarked as Jon parked in the designated employee parking area of the haunted house lot. When Davos inherited the decaying house on the large plot of land on the outskirts of town most people assumed he would sell it so he could go back South like he often talked about. Instead he built himself a tiny house on the property and turned the main house into a surprising source of income and the best haunted house from the Reach to the Wall. 

“I’m here. Might as well make the best of it.” Jon shrugged, knowing that she was referring to him not complaining the whole ride over like he had in years past. 

“Right. I’m sure that the pretty girl I saw you leave with yesterday had nothing to do with your newfound enthusiasm.” Sansa smirked as she got out of the car. Before Jon could come up with a reply she was already skipping off toward the garage where Shae and Willas would work their make-up magic on everyone. 

Jon shouldered his way through the small crowd in the parking lot to head through the employee entrance at the back of the house. Yet another thing he was grateful about being in the hallway station, no make-up. Last year he had spent countless hours trying to get all the fake blood out of his hair. The year before he had fallen asleep in zombie make-up and had to take a midterm in full costume. Most people assumed he was making some kind of statement and ignored him but Theon still had photos of it he liked to text Jon whenever he felt like trying to create a new meme. 

“How many people do you think will cry?” Ygritte asked, pulling Jon from his thoughts as he joined her at the end of the hallway. She was sitting on the dark floor underneath the arrow and for a wild moment Jon thought the arrow was pointing down at her, as if he needed a neon directive to know everything he had fucked up on was sitting right in front of him. 

“At least three here.” Jon sighed as he sank down to sit beside her. They had to arrive at the house the same time as everyone else but since they didn’t have costumes or makeup, they had over an hour to kill. Jon didn’t want to seal himself into his fabric alcove until he had too. 

“I’ve never worked in a haunted house before.” Ygritte wrapped her arms around her legs and Jon noticed that her hands were buried deep into the sleeves of her black turtleneck. He wondered if she was assigned the hallway or if she requested it so she could have something to put her hands on to keep warm. Jon wouldn’t mind if she used him to keep her hands warm. 

Quickly he shook the thought from his head. He’d fucked this up once, there was no need to do it again. 

“Why’d you decide to work here now?” Jon asked curiously. He was always interested in the reason people worked at the haunted house, most did it because they loved Halloween and scary things and the rest just wanted some extra money. Jon found that very few people did it because they were bribed by their siblings. 

“My roommate helped with the new set. Our apartment was taken over by these twisted trees for months.” Ygritte laughed at the memory of it and the sound stirred something deep in Jon’s chest. He knew what trees she was talking about; they were in the last room on the top floor. Davos liked to change the rooms around every season and this year there was now a haunted forest where the moving pictures had been last year. 

“I had fun helping him with the set so I thought why not try this out, have a little more fun.” Ygritte turned to smirk at him but despite the look on her face Jon could hear the teasing in her voice, “Of course I didn’t realize I’d be stuck in here with you.” 

“I’ll have you know I’m plenty fun.” Jon insisted, only feeling the slightest bit offended. He was surprised to realize that he actually missed Ygritte’s teasing and her sharp as a whip mind. 

“Not as much fun as scaring strangers I’m sure.” Ygritte turned back to stare down the empty hallway and Jon tried to look at it like he had never seen it before. What did she see with her novice eyes? 

“Few things are.” 

XxX 

The hours blurred endlessly in the dark tunnel of the hallway. The only things that broke up the time was the sliver of light when the front door opened and excited strangers tumbled through, their heavy footsteps and screams the only sound. Ygritte and Jon worked in silence and due to the heaviness of the fabric and the darkness around them Jon was unable to see what she was doing to cause people to scream that loudly. He had never been more grateful to the inventor of earplugs as he was that night. 

By the time the lights went on signaling that the house was closed for the night Jon was ready to head home. He had a history paper he still needed to finish and his stomach had been growling for the last two hours. Everybody else was getting a ride home from Robb so he didn’t have to hang around while they took off their makeup and changed which was a good thing because he didn’t think he could wait that long to eat. 

Jon walked to his car as he tried to remember if there was any food he could make quietly at the house as it was past eleven and Catelyn and Ned were certainly asleep or if he should stop at one of the three open places and get some food. He was so lost in thought about what to eat that he didn’t realize Ygritte had somehow managed to get out of the house before him until he nearly walked into her where she leaned against the back of his car. 

He shook his head the moment he saw her, he knew what she was here for and sure, her apartment was in the same direction he was going to be headed in for food anyway, but if he gave her a ride two days back to back he’d be stuck giving her a ride all month. They were already in the same station adding rides on top of that was like playing with fire. Jon had learned the hard way never to do that and he still had the burn on his forearm to prove it. 

“I can’t give you a ride tonight, sorry.” Jon mumbled as he walked around her to the driver’s side. 

“Hot date?” Ygritte asked leaning around the car to watch as he struggled with the lock. The colder it got the more his car fought him. Jon was willing to bet if he lived in Dorne he and his car would get along great. 

“Yeah with Hot-Pie.” Jon said as he finally managed to get his car door open. Hot-Pie worked at the only all-night diner in town and pretty much everything he made was to die for. Arya was friends with him because Arya was friends with literally everyone and she would often bring home day old pastries that hadn’t sold. Jon was pretty sure he’d gained ten pounds since the boy had moved North but he didn’t care at all, that’s how good his food was. 

“You’re going to the Crossroads?” Ygritte asked, her voice brightening as Jon moved to get into the driver’s seat. “Can I come? My treat, for you giving me a ride.” 

“Yesterday or tonight?” Jon asked, hesitating with one foot in the car like a loon. He really didn’t want to take Ygritte with him, that was too much like a date, like their first date actually. But Hot-Pie's cooking was so good he hated the idea of denying anyone it. 

“You pick.” Ygritte grinned, already moving around to the other side of the car she was so certain Jon would say yes. He cursed under his breath as he got in the car and leaned across to unlock the door for her. The things he did for food. 

XxX 

“Maybe if you didn’t drink a milkshake you wouldn’t be this cold.” Jon remarked as Ygritte turned his heater up higher and placed her palms on the vents. 

“Right like I’m going to go to the Crossroads and not order a milkshake.” Jon couldn’t see her very well in the dark between the streetlights but he could practically hear her rolling her eyes at him. “The cold is worth it.” 

“I can’t believe you got a milkshake when pie was right there.” Jon said with a shake of his head. He’d gotten the last slice of blueberry pie and it was so good if there had been more he would have bought the whole thing. 

“Milkshakes are better than pie.” Ygritte shrugged and Jon pulled up to the curb in front of her building with a screech. 

“Get out of my car right now.” he said seriously. Milkshakes were basically soupy ice cream whereas pie was pure slices of heaven. For a very brief moment Jon couldn’t remember what he had ever saw in her. 

Ygritte looked at him with brows raised in surprise before she let out a laugh at whatever she saw on his face. “Of course you’d go to war over desserts. Only you Jon Snow.” 

She was out of his car and up the front steps of her building as Jon tried to shake off the memory of how the last time they had gone to Crossroads she had taken him by the hand and led him up to her apartment with her. 

XxX 

It wasn’t his fault the way things ended between them but if he was being honest with himself (which he tried very hard to do despite what Bran seemed to think) it wasn’t not his fault either. In the end, it was both their faults and neither of their faults but mostly it was just plain stupid. 

They’d met spring semester in the library proving that Rickon’s repeated claims that nothing good ever happened in a library were false and he could stop using that as an excuse to Catelyn to why he wasn’t studying. Her hair had been down and she was wearing a gray jumper the color of Jon’s eyes and yeah maybe he had been foolish enough to take that as a sign or at the very least a spark of courage to sit down at the table across from her and strike up a conversation. 

She had an accent he’d never heard before and he’d never traveled further than the remains of the Wall so to say that she had fascinated him in the first ten minutes was an understatement. With everything he learned about her his interest only grew and flourished, it didn’t hurt anything that she was easily the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. 

They stayed in the library until the haggard student worker kicked them out after closing. It was late but neither of them felt like going home so Jon hesitated under the streetlight in front of the library and asked her if she was hungry. 

“Starved.” the way her eyes glinted in the lamplight Jon didn’t think it was only food she meant. 

It wasn’t snowing so they’d walked the six blocks to the Crossroads, the only place open on that side of town. This was before Hot-Pie so the food was good but it wasn’t great. He didn’t remember what they’d eaten but he did remember she’d had a milkshake, vanilla, and when she shivered as they left he’d put his arm around her like it was the most natural thing in the world and not like his stomach was so knotted he thought he might throw up. 

For the next six weeks Ygritte consumed his thoughts, both awake and dreaming. He spent every waking hour he wasn’t in class with her. Sometimes cuddled up in the back tables of the library, stealing kisses in the stacks more than they actually studied. Sometimes they ate at the Crossroads where it seemed Ygritte had made it her personal mission to try every flavor of milkshake they made. But mostly they met at her place where her roommate was almost never home and there weren’t curious siblings around every corner. 

Jon never knew that kissing could give you that kind of a rush until Ygritte. She had a way of running her tongue over his bottom lip that made his chest tighten and his hands curl into whatever part of her he was holding; hair, waist, hips. She drove him absolutely mad and they weren’t even sleeping together. 

If he was asked Jon wouldn’t have known why they weren’t sleeping together. They both clearly wanted to and he was super into her. It wasn’t like he hadn’t slept with a woman before which he had, one woman, once. Jon just wanted it to mean something because _she_ meant something. 

They’d never talked about whether they were dating casually or exclusively or really anything when it came to the terms of their own relationship. Looking back Jon would realize this was odd considering how they talked about everything else. Maybe it was because they didn’t think it needed saying, that the other person knew already. 

He would lose countless nights of sleep wondering how much trouble they could have spared each other if they had just talked about labels first. 

Maybe if they’d talked about it then the night when Ygritte pulled him down onto her bed on top of her and started to undo his belt Jon wouldn‘t have tensed up. He wouldn’t have blurted the first thing that came to his mind which was not even what he was really thinking and certainly not how he had meant to ask it. 

“Are you sleeping with other people?” the moment the words left Jon’s mouth he knew he was fucked and not in the good way, not in the way Ygritte had intended just seconds before. 

“What?” her voice was surprised but there was none of her usual playfulness in it. 

“I meant-” Jon fumbled unsure of what to say first. He’d meant to say did she want to sleep with him. He'd meant to ask if she only wanted to sleep with him. He'd meant to ask if she wanted to be his girlfriend and potential future life mate because if these past few weeks had been any indication, they were perfect together. 

“What kind of person do you think I am Jon Snow?” she asked, shoving at his chest as she wiggled her hips out from underneath him. Jon tried very hard to ignore what that movement did to his body, now was _not_ the time. 

“I didn’t mean-” Jon hurried to say but Ygritte was on a roll now, he could see it in the flare of her nostrils and in the stubborn set to her shoulders. 

“Besides, what’s it to you if I am? You don’t own me. I’m a free woman and I can do as I please!” Ygritte stood angrily, grabbing the closest shirt to her and pulling it on. 

“That’s not what I-” Jon stood, buckling his pants as he took a step closer to her in the hopes that he could still pull his foot from his mouth and not ruin their night. 

“Just because you don’t know where to put it Jon-” Ygritte was fuming now, her hair wild as she ran her hands through it. 

“I know where to put it!” Jon snapped, feeling his own anger finally break. He’d said the wrong thing but was she really not even going to let him explain? She wasn’t even giving him a chance. “Forget it.” Jon said, shaking his head as he bent to scoop up his shoes and jacket. He spared one look at the shirt she was still wearing before shaking his head and shouldering past her to the door. 

He’d get the shirt tomorrow, for now he needed to get out of there before one of them said something they’d regret. Well, something else. 

When the morning arrived and Jon looked at his phone to find a total of zero calls, texts or even snapchats from Ygritte Jon came to the sinking realization that he had ruined a lot more than their night. 

XxX 

He should have fought harder, Jon knew that now. Not that night, but the next day or fuck even the next. He should have done something to explain what he had been trying to say, that he wasn’t accusing her of anything he just wanted to be the only person she slept with. He didn’t care what she had done or who she had been with in the past all Jon cared about was the future. Those were the things he should have said in days that followed. Instead he said nothing. 

And neither did she. 

Days turned to weeks turned to a month turned to longer time they had been apart than they had been together. Jon was brooding harder than normal because even Rickon tried to comfort him, letting him play his brand new video game with him even though he usually only let people play once he had beaten them. 

Jon hated feeling so transparent but at least no one pried. It was like he had written the word DUMPED across his forehead with the way people were treating him. But time went on and the pain lessened and annoyance settled in. She didn’t even text him once. She never even gave him back his shirt, in one piece or not. 

He didn’t see her at the library anymore but that could be because he stopped going as much. He was able to study just fine at home once he bought a pair of noise canceling headphones. Summer passed in a humid blur and he was able to finally shake the smell of her hair from his mind. He had all but convinced himself that Ygritte Wilde wasn’t all that he had made her up to be until he was standing across from her in that stupid haunted house and all his old feelings hit him with the force of a speeding freight train. 

The way they left things all those months ago hung heavy in the air between them as did her comment about the fighting. Did Ygritte think he didn’t fight for her? If that was true then she didn’t fight for him either. 

Maybe they both just sucked at this. 

The first week of October passed and Jon found her waiting at his car every night for a ride home. The second week passed and they walked out to his car together, Jon was very careful to avoid walking in eyeline of the garage. He did not want to deal with his siblings’ questions about Ygritte, it would bring up too many things. The third week came to a close and Jon found themselves sitting in the Crossroads again, this time her shake was orange cream and his pie was peach. 

“Its your treat this time.” Ygritte said licking her spoon. Jon quickly looked away as he dug his fingers into his palms, he did not need the thoughts that action was giving him. They were hanging out again but she had made no move to show him she wanted to be anything other than his friend. 

“But I’m the one giving you rides.” Jon said, his brow furrowed as he looked at the last bite of his pie. He really wanted to eat it because it was so good but if he did, then it would be gone. He sighed as he speared it with his fork, what a silly thing to worry about. 

“Yeah but I had the most scares this week.” Ygritte reminded him as she finished her shake with a loud slurp. Jon envied her easy way of finishing desserts, even if her dessert of choice was crap. 

“You were serious about that?” Jon asked in surprise as he put his fork down on his empty plate and tried not to look sad about it. 

“Of course I was serious!” Ygritte cried loudly, causing the only other people in the restaurant to look over at them curiously. Jon vaguely recognized one of them as Theon’s older sister and he could tell from the faint remains of makeup on their faces that her and the other girl both worked at the haunted house. He hadn’t bothered to learn anyone’s names since he didn’t ever leave his alcove. He just hoped they didn’t say anything about seeing him to his siblings or Gods forbid, Theon. 

“We agreed, the person with the least scares buys dinner.” Ygritte said, flicking her empty straw wrapper at him. Jon batted it away before placing it on his empty plate, there was no need to give Ros anymore work cleaning up. 

“I still don’t get how you’re classifying the scares.” Jon admitted, leaning back against the worn vinyl booth. When she had come up with the idea last week he hadn’t really thought much of it other than the fact that Ygritte and him would be having dinner again. He had been trusting her to count the scares but now he was wondering if maybe he should have kept his own tally as well. 

“By screams of course.” Ygritte said rolling her eyes. 

“But not all people scream when their scared.” Jon protested, flinching in surprise when Ygritte lightly kicked the booth beside him. 

“Then they’re not scared enough and I win on sheer talent.” Ygritte said loftily, raising her eyebrow at him in a silent challenge to question her. 

“Sheer talent? Of pretending to be a wall?” Jon snorted and shook his head as Ros approached them to see if they needed anything else. 

“A scary wall.” Ygritte reminded him firmly before smiling at Ros, “Can we get the check and another one of those pie slices to go please?” 

Jon looked at her in surprise as Ros nodded and headed to the revolving case which housed all of Hot-Pie's heavenly creations. 

“What?” Ygritte asked, pulling her hands up into her sweater. “You were mooning at your plate for ten minutes. Besides, it’s your treat.” 

XxX 

Jon never thought he would be able to overthink a slice of pie but that was before Ygritte showed up back in his life. It was silly, a fact that he reminded himself of several times a day, to be so worked up over her ordering him a slice to go. He’d paid for it after all so it’s not like it was a gift. Still she had noticed that he wanted it and gotten it for him, well sort of. That was way more than any girl he’d dated had done before, mainly because he had never dated anyone long enough for them to know him that well. 

What he didn’t know now was whether or not him and Ygritte were trying their hand at dating again or if they were just friends. He wanted to ask but every time he tried the words shriveled up and died in his throat as he was reminded of how disastrously that conversation had gone for him the first time. 

By the time Halloween arrived they had spent the last week with Jon giving her rides home in a weird charged silence like Ygritte knew what he wanted to ask her but she wasn’t going to offer him any encouragement or help and let him bumbled his way through it on his own. 

Halloween was obviously their busiest night of the year and they opened two hours earlier than the rest of the month to allow even more people time to come through the doors. They got a lot of repeat customers of Halloween so Davos always saved a few special scares that he brought out that night. One was a small rusted tricycle that he had attached to a magnetic track that ran around the end of the hallway. Jon was pretty sure he was going to trip at least once by the end of the night. He just hoped it was far enough back that none of the guests tripped over it, the last thing Davos needed was a lawsuit. The tricycle did look pretty creepy, even Jon had to admit that. 

With their normal spot taken by the world’s creepiest tricycle Jon and Ygritte sat propped against opposite sides of the hallway, her legs were extended and she was so close that if Jon took his arms off of where they rested on his knees he would be touching her. The thought was very tempting but then if he messed this conversation up again, she could easily kick him in the face and Jon would very much like to keep all of his teeth. 

“Are you going to the party tonight?” Jon asked, hoping his voice sounded casual. He didn’t feel causal, he felt all sorts of hot and jumpy. There was always a cast and crew party at the house on Halloween that tended to get a little out of control, when they all came back to clean tomorrow half of them would be nursing hangovers and the other half would be complaining about the mess the party made. 

“That depends.” Ygritte shrugged. 

“On what?” Jon asked curiously. He had been dragged to the party the last two years and it was fun but he’d rather be wherever she was. 

“On who has the most scares tonight.” Ygritte said, lightly bumping her leg against his as she smiled. 

“What does the loser have to do this time?” Jon asked curiously, he would have to keep track of his own scares just to be safe. He wasn’t sure he trusted her to be fair on this. 

“I was thinking...” Ygritte paused and tapped a finger to her lips in fake thought. Jon knew she was just prolonging the moment for the dramatic effect. Val had been a theater major and sometimes it was easy to see how she had worn off on Ygritte. “The loser owns the winner a kiss.” 

Jon tilted his head to the side, certain that he had heard her wrong. Ygritte’s gaze was steady and unflinching on his as he swallowed hard and told himself to be as brave as she was being. “Doesn’t sound like there’s any losers there.” 

"Are you saying you want to kiss me Jon Snow?” Ygritte asked softly, and even in the dim light Jon could see the smile on her face. 

“I’ve wanted to kiss you since the moment I first saw you.” Jon admitted, his cheeks heating up at the confession. “That’s never stopped.” 

“You ghosted me.” Ygritte whispered, pulling her hands deeper into her sleeves. Jon could see her worrying the cloth in her clenched fists. “That sucked.” 

“Yeah.” Jon agreed, letting his head fall back against the wall with a dull thud as he looked across at her. “You ghosted me too. That sucked.” 

Ygritte rose her brows at him before shaking her head with a small laugh. “So we both suck.” 

“Guess so.” Jon’s heart began to speed up as Ygritte pushed off against the wall to scoot into the middle of the hallway. Jon pushed himself out with his hands to meet her halfway, the hallway wasn’t very wide so he didn’t have far to go. 

“Want to start over?” Ygritte asked, her voice breathy as she tilted her head to look at him. 

Jon reached up with shaking fingers to brush a lock of her bright red hair behind her ear. 

“No.” her face fell and she moved to pull away but Jon quickly shook his head, reaching his other hand up to cup her face between his palms as he explained in a rush. “What happened, happened. Doesn’t do us any good to pretend otherwise. We just have to learn from it and move forward.” 

“And what did you learn from it?” Ygritte asked softly, leaning slightly into his hands. 

“That I suck at conversation.” Jon admitted with a snort, causing Ygritte to laugh softly. “And that I want you. All of you. To myself.” her eyes flashed bright and Jon quickly shook his head, amazed he’d already messed this up. “I know you’re a free woman to do as you please but-” 

“I can be free and loyal at the same time.” Ygritte said softly, causing Jon to stop his ramblings and look at her with hope he could no longer keep at bay. 

“Do you want to be my girlfriend then?” he asked hesitantly, the words that he had meant to ask all those months ago. The dusty floor of a haunted house was definitely not the setting he would have thought he would say those words in but he supposed no part of what he had with Ygritte had ever gone the way he had thought. 

“Yes.” Ygritte assured him before leaning forward. Again, Jon met her halfway, his fingers moving to tangle into her hair as her lips moved against his. She tasted like sour candies which was not something Jon had ever enjoyed until that moment. She ran her tongue over his bottom lip and Jon’s fingers tightened in her hair. He wanted nothing more than to take her back into one of their alcoves and kiss her through the night, haunted house be damned. 

“We’ll have to figure out something else for the loser to do.” Ygritte said when they finally broke apart. 

“Is the bet still on?” Jon asked in surprise. 

Ygritte laughed with a shake of her head as she looked at him fondly. “Do you know nothing Jon Snow? Of course, it is.”


End file.
